Rare sighting of group of mountain lions caught on camera outside Sacramento

PALMDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- A home security camera caught a rare sighting - a group of five mountain lions.

The big cats were spotted outside a home east of Sacramento earlier this week.

An increase in home surveillance systems has provided biologists with more images of mountain lions than ever before. Several mountain lions being seen together is extremely rare.

"We shared the videos and photos with several of our wildlife biologists, and none of them could recall ever seeing five mountain lions together," Peter Tira with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement.

Mountain lions are solitary creatures, extremely elusive and don't play well together.

The footage shows that one of the cougars is bigger than the others, likely the mother with her cubs. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife doesn't believe the cubs are from the same litter.

"It jumped onto the fence, sat there, then it jumped over the fence and chased them around in circles, the four ducks," said Julie Cormier, a Palmdale resident.

Cormier was getting ready for work when she saw a large animal inside her duck enclosure and heard her four ducks making noise. She and her boyfriend, Jon Eifer, said it was a mountain lion that was captured on their home security camera.

"When she first told me about it, I didn't believe her. I thought it was a coyote or a bobcat. I never remember a mountain lion being out here. I'm trying to figure out where it went so we can figure out how to keep it away from here, keep our ducks safe," Eifer said.